Builders And Remodelers Volunteer Time To Renovate Twin Foreclosed Homes

Greensboro, NC -- Two homes, side-by-side, in one neighborhood and both in foreclosure for about two years.

It's a sight in the Ole Asheboro neighborhood of Greensboro that's been dragging down a community already in need of sprucing.

This week, some volunteers are giving the homes much needed attention and an entire neighborhood stands to reap the benefits.

For days now, Sally Bethea has been hearing the whirring of chainsaws and rhythmic thumps of hammers outside her window.

"I told my daughter, I said, 'they are really working over there!'" she said.

When she can, Bethea says, walks outside her door to look at the progress on the homes.

"I think it's going to be a nice looking house," she said, smiling. "It was looking bad! It was a bad looking house. The little white house was just an ugly little house."

Bethea says she's enjoying seeing her community of 19-years slowly coming to life.

Thursday morning, volunteers were putting new siding on one of the homes and remodeling the inside of the other.

"The front is almost done. And from when we arrived this morning, to what it looks like now, it's just night and day, said Jan van Hoy, a volunteer.

The two homes have sat next to each other, empty, unkempt and depressing the neighborhood.

'These particular properties are in distressed neighborhoods where the market values of these homes are much less," said Gene Brown, president of Housing Greensboro. "The hope is, these homes, once they are finished, will be sold to low income first time home buyers."

"I feel like volunteering is something that you have to do. It's something you're called to do but it's also something that you should do just to give back," Chrissy Black, a volunteer, said. "You can do miracles when you have enough people."

"To see the people that get to be in these homes and you know that you had a very small part, it's a feeling that money can't buy,' van Hoy added.

And while all the progress is good in a neighborhood like Bethea's, she says in the end all she wants is one thing.

"I hope I get some nice neighbors," she said, breaking a smile.

In just the last four years Housing Greensboro has turned around more than a dozen foreclosed homes.

The two homes volunteers are currently working on should be completed by the first of January.

Low income families interested in the program can call Housing Greensboro.

If you're interested in buying any of the remodeled homes, you can call Housing Greensboro at 336-676-6986.

The non-profit also runs a home repair program at a sliding scale fee. There are currently 40 families in line waiting for help.